10 Things I hated about Euro 2008

Or rather, 10 things I hated about the abysmal Euro 2008 coverage by the British media (online and TV).

Football is a source of joy, but the buffoonery surrounding football can drive the viewer to the madhouse. Here’s a look at the top 10 reasons I’ll be spending the summer ‘in rehab‘ after being put through the misery that is the British media’s coverage of Euro 2008:

10. Aragones is now a ‘good guy’?

Aragones was conveniently the fall-figure when he made a ‘somewhat’ racist comment about Thierry Henry, but now that he’s had the perfect swansong, he’s a great guy? Or is this not the right time for us to ‘remember’ that Aragones has his flaws, and that Spain won not only because they made the fewest mistakes but because they never really met their match in skill and preparation. France v Spain, with France fit to fight, or Portugal v Spain would have been a genuinely good game. Ditto for Italy (with Toni scoring goals and Pirlo on the pitch).

Not to take any credit away from Aragones or Spain – he was tactically excellent and Spain are worthy champions. Which brings us to…

9. Why do we insist on the ‘worthy’ / ‘deserving’ label?

It’s as if someone in the past didn’t ‘deserve’ to win it. Or that if a lesser team had won it, they wouldn’t be ‘worthy’ champions.

Italy were worthy champions in 2006 – they were the better team in the final and got the win fair and square.

Greece were deserving champions in 2004 – they won their games throughout the tournament fairly and beat better teams than themselves.

Enough of this ‘worthy’ business.

8. The ‘Great’ Performers

Cesc Fabregas is a very good player but as Iniesta and Xavi showed, those two are better and far more experienced. Fab still has some way to go, despite the praise heaped on him after the quarter and semi finals.

David Villa really showed up for one game and 5 minutes for the other. 4 goals to show for it and he gets the Golden Boot. For a wonderful tournament, where were the strikers?

Cristiano Ronaldo had an average handful of games and most of it can be attributed to the fact that he didn’t have midfielders creating for him nor forwards to play off on. Like Ballack, Ronaldo was hampered by the lack of ability of his teammates. Ditto for Arshavin.

Torres and Podolski – two fantastically talented footballers, one coming in on the back of a great season and the other trying to prove himself all over again. Two footballers who fall over at every opportunity and yet are strong enough to outjump most defenders and fast enough to nip past any set of players. Come on guys, really…

7. The ‘New’ Arshavin fans

Get off it. If he was as good as they claim he is he would have been snapped up a season ago. Not to say that his agent has tried – they were hawking him off to the Premier League in January as well. Don’t get me wrong – he’s a very good player. But the hype came too quickly, too easily.

6. Best Tournament Ever?

Really, is it? People point to the Dutch extravaganza in the Group of Death, Spain’s quiet domination, the Russian revolution and Turkey’s amazing comebacks as proof that this was great, entertaining football played in true attacking spirit.

In reality, the football on offer was poor – Portugal were muscled out by a technically-limited Germany, Holland’s fine counter-attacking couldn’t handle Russia’s slick movement in which they hardly gave the ball away, Russians themselves were undone by their impatience and Spain triumphed despite having a shaky defence thanks to them playing an anchorman and using the pace of Villa / Torres for viciously-quick counter-attacks.

Some good tactics? Yes. Some great football? Yes. But there was a lot of boring, below-par stuff, nothing that makes it a fantastic tournament. Unless you’re a fan of the four teams that got to the semifinals.

5. The Promise To Unearth Hidden Gems

We were promised that Euro 2008 would bring forward the stars of tomorrow. As it was, it was today’s stars doing much of the talking, with only Pepe and perhaps Fabregas – both ‘established’ in reputations – being the outstanding ‘youngsters’. Benzema, Gomez, Nani…pffffftttttt. The Russians? How Premier-League centric do you have to be to think that Arshavin is a ‘hidden gem’?

4. The Commentary

Please, spare me. Not only do they have their ‘scripts’ which they mindlessly stick to (or fall back on after events take a breather from contradicting them) in the face of obvious truth. Cliches upon cliches pepper the filtered narrative – and all of this would have been palatable if they got it right some of the time. They hardly do, which is why watching the game without sound (except when the visuals alone doesn’t tell the whole story, like when an off-the-ball incident happens) is so refreshing.

They could improve things by getting public ratings for all pundits and sending the worst of them back to doing something useful, like investing their time training young footballers.

3. Fan Watch

For all the focus on the fans and the wags, this was more of a WAG-watch or BOOB-watch than fan-watch. To be blunt, if a lady had her tits hanging out she’d get photographed, but the pretty ladies had to be semi-nude to even get a glance. It made it so hard to find good pictures for the euro 08 babes roundup…What happened to style and subtlety?

2. Cristiano Ronaldo Rumours

For the love of god. Please. Decide. Get on with it. The tournament was over-shadowed by the Ronaldo rumours and even when he went off on holidays they followed him around and ogled his new girlfriend, Nerieda Gallardo, and concocted half-brained rumours with one hand tied behind their back (or otherwise occupied)… He’s good, he’s really good, but is he bigger than Euro 2008?

1. The Anti-English Rants

So England didn’t make it. It hurt, but big deal, we can move on right? Afraid not.

The British are a sadist bunch, and none are more sadist and prone to self-infliction of pain than the press themselves. The journalists brilliantly tapped into British guilt for not making it to the Euros and turned June into a celebration of their own failures. How refreshing to see a tournament without England? How refreshing to see a tournament without the WAGs dancing on tabletops? How refreshing to not have to deal with boring, boring England?

Except that England were miles ahead of several teams playing at the Euros and the nauseating coverage of WAGs was a staple for the media only 2 years ago (everyone made a feature on ‘Euro 2008 WAGs / Euro 2008 Babes’, from Fox Sports to BBC to Guardian to the Sun and all the blogs too). Boring England? Romania, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Poland…even Sweden and France and Italy…were boring as hell. Under Capello, I’d fancy England to beat half the teams at the Euros.

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32 Comments

I too personally hated the idea that Arshavin was just some new and sudden talent waiting to be wisked away by a European giant. Get outta here, dude had a few good games, and now all of a sudden he’s world class? Good yes, world class don’t see it. Agree with you there Ahmed.

I must say though. here in the United States, we were treated to the commentary of Andy Gray. He was greta throughout the tournament, and he talked football like American’s understand the game, which we do. Very good job on ESPN’s part ot sign him up for the tournament.

Adam30 June, 2008

Everton & Newcastle have been following Arshavin for just over a year.

yes I agree with pretty much everthing here, paricularly the Arshavin stuff. I was at the Holland v Russia game and he wasnt that good. And considering he is like 27 or something surely if he was absolutely amazing he would have been snapped before. But alas papers have to sell papers and hype is all they have.

I do think the quality of football out there was pretty good tho, I can only think of a few tedious games. And alot of that is down to weak defenses which lead to alot of late goals. which is always good.

As for this ‘deserved’ winners etc, this is definitely a buzz word from the last 4 years. There is so much media rubbish about playing ‘beautiful’ football these days that any team that plays otherwise (i.e a Germany, Greece, Chelsea or the Italians) is deemed not worthy, it is ridiculous – obviously i say this as a biased Chelsea fan but nevertheless you get the idea.

And finally Ronaldo – as good as he is I still stand by the opinion he does not show up in the big games and any decent left back from Cashley to Clichy can eat him for breakfast. He can f**k off to la liga and score hattricks against Getafe for all I care.

Cheers
Ben

AntiManu30 June, 2008

It least there weren’t too many Man United players getting on my nerves in these finals. Surprizingly few in fact….

CrouchyTime30 June, 2008

what a bunch of bs about Torres… falls over every chance he gets?

FormerGoalie30 June, 2008

Exactly why do the referees get a trophy?

RVP1130 June, 2008

you do let yourself down sometimes ahmed, don’t try to play down cesc’s role in spain’s triumph. first of all cesc got an assist and scored against the russians in the first match. he breathed new life into the spanish against italy when xavi and iniesta were both poor, and it was cesc who got two assists and orchestrated the win against the russians in the semi final. all three players showed their world class capabilities in about three matches. and if cesc had started more you wouldn’t have said that.

i know that ronaldo had a great season but had an average tournament, you cannot say that he had any less service for portugal with deco and moutinho playing.remember the germany match where he could have scored twice? and the torres diving thing as well, ronaldo is just as bad.
a few poor ‘fillers’ in a generally good article.

Liverpool_Fan30 June, 2008

I must ask how u can slag Podolski and Torres when there has been much worse “performances” of this new phase called diving going on. For me Podolski only really dived when he was about to get fouled anyway so it cant really be cheating.

Brian is on track with the commentary. We had Andy Gray who is a joy to listen to. Derek Rae wasn’t too shabby either. I thought the tournament was sensational not because of the level of play (it was often bland) but because of the dram that you experience when these teams want it so bad. If you take Romania and Italy, a poor game that had me yelling and shouting and dancing around. A great tournament in all but the level of actual play was not as high as it should have or could have been.

Dee30 June, 2008

Fully agree that it’s absurd to suddenly label Aragones a “good guy.” He may be a smart coach, but he’s also a disgusting racist. And nothing–not even a Euro 08 victory–will erase that.

RVP – I’m talking specifically about the media coverage of the Euros. Fab did as he does, which was great and match-changing. But pre-final, he was being heralded as the man to lead Spain to European greatness, hardly a fitting title.

Similarly, after the final, Torres is being labeled as a legend in the making. I mean, give me a break…

Ronaldo didn’t have a great tournament. We know that. Hardly any player had a ‘great’ tournament though…

Ronaldo’s diving is main-course fare for football fans. I’m trying to shed the light on areas we don’t get a lot of coverage off, namely the more subtle diving engaged in by strikers today.

Rafmeister 2230 June, 2008

Can i say that there has been all this stuff about Arshavin, Cesc (and i’m an arsenal fan), Ballack etc but for me the star was Semih Senturk. 3 vital goals & without him turkey would’ve been poor. i tipped turkey from the start because everyone under rated them.
And thank god, somebody knows what he’s talking about. ENGLAND ARE GOOD!! they would’ve easily reached the quarters if not the semis. With Capello, i think we can look forward to success in 2010. it was just Mclaren who let down the nation – and what are FC Twente thinking???
I think Turkey have used the tournament well as an opportunity to prove that it is a power in European football. I’m expecting them, along with England, in south Africa.
As for Ronaldo, he’s good but what a w****r! It’s obvious he’ll go to Madrid, he’s just trying to wind up the footballing world.

Rafmeister 2230 June, 2008

And congrats to David Villa, but to be honest, with service from Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Fabregas, Senna and Xabi Alonso even I could’ve scored 4 times in 4-and-a-bit games.

american30 June, 2008

for all the criticism of low standards that was levelled at the African Nations tournament earlier this year. I don’t think the level of play was any better in the euros.

fuzzy_red_devil30 June, 2008

Join maxxed football forums.
There is a thread named EURO babes or something like that.
Hopefully that will satisfy you appetite.

fuzzy_red_devil30 June, 2008

I still don’t understand why Marcos Senna was not chosen as the player of the tournament. He is the reason that Spain conceded only 3 goals in the tournament(with none in the knockout rounds). As United have shown this season, a strong defence lays down the foundation for success.

Boom Gunners!30 June, 2008

Fuzzy nailed it.

I was reading along and getting ready to put in my two cents about Senna and Fuzzy beat me to it. He was everywhere disrupting the oppositions attack and distributed the ball amazingly well too. The build up he began and almost finished against Germany in the final was brilliant.

And can I say how lucky Germany was to not give up more goals because of Lehman. He was so shaky in goal. Good luck Stuttgart.

you know guys, what is realy pissing me off is the odds.!
How did they know that Germany is playing agaisnt Spain in the final.
You know after Germany won over Portugal it was easy to know that they going to the final.
but i mean from the start on, that they knew that.
And what really pissed me off is the chelsea fans, they happy that they have now Scolari, but what did Scolari with Portugal do?
Where was Quaresma, the man who is holding Fc Porto !.!
How can he let a striker play when he’s never scoring, okej that goal against germany but anyway in the qualificatin i mean,too.
This Euro2008 was preety boring i mean preety boring.!
I axpected from France nice fotball, from italy from Portugal, but what happened we saw nothing from them.
We saw Russia, and Turkey and of caurse Spain.
I dont know but the players in this Euro hmm it wasnt just the same, i hope the World CUP 2010 will be much better.

Be Go1 July, 2008

Still, i love the way Italy halt the Spanish attacks. Half true, the Spanish can’t even thrust inside Italian defense. I love thight defenses, one that can frustated anyone.

About the first point, The Anti-English Rants, if England can’t forgive themselves, they shall always be held back by their own history. Give Capello the trust he needed! Italian can win World Cup because everyone share same goal and “united in heart”. I know the Englishman can, and they must! Not only should.

Sorry for England fans. I do like the fact they didn’t go to Euro Cup Final, because i like how Russian play. I love the way England play in Sven Goran Errikson era. The MacClaren’s one doesn’t have a good foundation. I still need to see The Capello’s team, but looking how AS Roma and AC Milan play back then, it’s gonna be interesting.

Sorry for huge post and rather poor grammar.

uv1 July, 2008

well congrats david villa .. but rafmeister its not so easy to score goals in front of a staggering crowd evn wid d likes of iniesta , xavi … so i think he did a pretty good jb for his team and it certainly paid off .

Deserved winners referred to the fact that Spain won it by actually playing some attractive football. Did you actually think that the shit on a stick brand of footy that Greece played to win the Euros was deserved? I could watch paint dry.

The Euro’s actually rewarded teams that went for it. It doesn’t speak much about the defensive abilities for some of the teams but attacking football / positive intent was usually rewarded which is good to see.

And yes I know you are bitter that the Arsenal, Liverpool fans will have a field day gloating over Spain’s victory like they had a part to play. Let them have their day, it’s delusional if they somehow thought Liverpool/Arsenal had a hand in Spain’s victory.

first comment – since when does playing ‘good football’ mean you deserve more than ‘actually winning the game’? Should we change the criteria for what constitutes a win then? Maybe something similar to ice skating or olympic diving…

On the other hand, if Greece had hoodwinked the whole world, bribed referees, cheated by using steriods, or otherwise broken the rules and still won, that would have been undeserved. Not defending Greece because frankly I wasn’t a fan 4 years ago and I’m not now, but the terminology we’re using and the unspoken assumptions that goes with it are misleading / incorrect.

Disagree. I just thought it was good for football to see teams that actually played attacking football getting rewarded for their efforts. Unlike past tournaments, a team raised eyebrows from the first game and did not flatter to deceive — like we saw with Argentina in the past, for instance.

Unlike past tournaments, a team raised eyebrows from the first game and did not flatter to deceive â€” like we saw with Argentina in the past, for instance.

or the Dutch…

Be Go2 July, 2008

We are somewhat confusing between attractive and attacking football; thay are different think.

I agree with Red, Spain win because they play attractive football, rather than “military” football like Greece, and spectators love it. still, saying Greece playing [input anything bad you want to say here] is rather rude. The Greek deserve their win nontheless.

On the other hand, Spain mainly defending by widthdrawing 4 defender and 1 anchor (total 5 defender) when losing the ball to defending their position, and letting other Spaniard do the pressure, that isn’t attacking football, just normal mid oriented football. Spain mainly attacking by retaining and conserving possession as much as possible, rather than pressuring at any time, so they are playing Defensive Football. The only team playing attacking football so far is England in McClaren era, defending with only 4 defender and directly attacking whenever possible.

In short, Spain play “attractive” possession football, which is a form of defensive football, not attacking football, so they are not so much different than Greece other than playing attractively. Euro Cup do reward those who are willing to fight hard.

Yes the team that won did not flatter to decieve. You will always have more than one team that excite you but only one team can win the thing.

I guess we can’t agree on this one. 🙂

PeeJay2 July, 2008

I agree with most of it. When a tournament doesn’t have an obvious savior like Ronaldo in ’02 or Cannavaro in ’06 the media tend to create these people, like in the Champions’ League final where Van Der Sar recieved all the plaudits for saving two penalties.

The same has happened here, there was no obvious genius/leader in the Spain team so they created them.

Also, yes I agree with Arshavin, similar to what happened when Messi became big. Messi fanboys were bred like nothing, I don’t know where they all came from.

The football was indeed ugly with the exceptions of Holland, Turkey and Spain. Atleast Greece never fluked it this time.

It’s good for Torres though, I can’t see him winning anything at club level, Liverpool can’t compete with the Big 3.

Good article.

Liverpool_Fan2 July, 2008

Im not gloating because im a Liverpool fan I have supported Spain next to England all my life cause I loved going der on holidays when I was a kid, since then the Spanish connections with Liverpool has just made my love for them stronger and stronger.

Pierce8 July, 2008

i think the most disappointing thing of the whole tournament was the fact that we did not get to see holland and spain play in the semifinals, i’m sick of the all the praise for russia and especially arshavin, in my opinion pavlyuchenko far outclassed arshavin, he could have had at least 2 possibly 3 more goals had a couple of his shots not hit the crossbar, but i russia were a good story, but holland/spain would have been a absolute classic, i was so disappointed in holland the entire russia game and when ruud had that late goal i thought they had a chance — terrible substitions by van basten in that game (v persie was fine, but affellay over robben over even huntelaar possibly are you kidding me, i love heitinga but there were many better subs on the bench)

Sasha14 July, 2008

Of course this was one of the most exciting tournaments ever. The Turkish comebacks, the Russian rejuvenation? Come on! UGLY??? Are you kidding me?? Russia in the game against Holland played some of the most beautiful football you will ever see. Ever. Maybe you’ve forgotten something, go watch the game again. So many chances, so many dangerous moments. Yes some games were ugly, but some were amazing. And, please, stop feeling sorry for England. I doubt they would have beaten Greece if they were at this tournament. It makes me sick how biased people are towards England around here.